The ripening period of cacao generally occurs at two seasons of the
year, but in these islands the most abundant crop is obtained at about
the commencement of the dry season, and the fruits continue to ripen
for two months or longer. The time of its approaching maturity is
easily recognized by the tyro by the unmistakable aroma of chocolate
that pervades the orchard at that period, and by some of the pods
turning reddish or yellow according to the variety.
The pods are attached by a very short stalk to the trunk of the tree,
and those within reach of the hand are carefully cut with shears. Those
higher up are most safely removed with an extension American tree
pruner. A West Indian hook knife with a cutting edge above and below
and mounted on a bamboo pole, if kept with the edges very sharp, does
excellently well, but should only be intrusted to the most careful
workmen. There is hardly a conceivable contingency to warrant the
climbing of a cacao tree. If it should occur, the person climbing
should go barefooted. As soon as the fruit, or so much of it as is
well ripened, has been gathered, it is thrown into heaps and should
be opened within twenty-four hours.
The opening is done in a variety of ways, but the practice followed in
Surinam would be an excellent one here if experienced labor was not at
command. There, with a heavy knife or cutlass (bolo), they cut off the
base or stem end of the fruit and thereby expose the column to which
the seeds are attached, and then women and children, who free most of
the seeds, are able to draw out the entire seed mass intact. It is
exceedingly important that the seeds are not wounded, and for that
reason it is inexpedient to intrust the more expeditious method of
halving the fruit with a sharp knife to any but experienced workmen.
The process of curing that I have seen followed in these Islands is
simplicity itself. Two jars half filled with water are provided for
the cleaners, and as the seeds are detached from the pulp they are
sorted and graded on the spot. Only those of large, uniform size,
well formed and thoroughly ripe, being thrown into one; deformed,
small, and imperfectly matured seeds going to the other. In these
jars the seeds are allowed to stand in their own juice for a day,
then they are taken out, washed in fresh water, dried in the sun from
two to four days, according to the weather, and the process from the
Filipino standpoint is complete.
Much of the product thus obtained is singularly free from bitterness
and of such excellent quality; as to be saleable at unusually high
prices, and at the same time in such good demand that it is with
some hesitancy that the process of fermentation is recommended for
general use.
But it is also equally certain that localities in these Islands
will be planted to cacao where all the conditions that help to
turn out an unrivaled natural product are by no means assured. For
such places, where the rank-growing, more coarse-flavored, and
bitter-fruited Forastero may produce exceptionally good crops,
it will become incumbent on the planter to adopt some of the many
methods of fermentation, whereby he can correct the crudeness of the
untreated bean and receive a remunerative price for the "processed"
or ameliorated product.
Undoubtedly the Strickland method, or some modification of it, is
the best, and is now in general use on all considerable estates where
the harvest is 200 piculs or upward per annum, and its use probably
assures a more uniform product than any of the ruder processes in
common use by small proprietors.
But it must not be forgotten that the present planters in the
Philippines are all small proprietors, and that until such time as the
maturing of large plantations calls for the more elaborate apparatus
of the Strickland pattern, some practice whereby the inferior crude
bean may be economically and quickly converted into a marketable
product can not be avoided. As simple and efficacious as any is that
largely pursued in some parts of Venezuela, where is produced the
famous Caracas cacao.
The beans and pulp are thrown into wooden vats that are pierced with
holes sufficient to permit of the escape of the juice, for which
twenty-four hours suffices. The vat is then exposed to the sun for
five or six hours, and the beans, while still hot, are taken out,
thrown into large heaps, and covered with blankets.
The next day they are returned to the box, subjected to a strong sun
heat and again returned to the heap. This operation is repeated for
several days, until the beans, by their bright chocolate color and
suppleness, indicate that they are cured. If, during the period of
fermentation, rain is threatened or occurs, the beans are shoveled,
still hot, into bags and retained there until they can once more be
exposed to the sun. Before the final bagging they are carefully hand
rubbed in order to remove the adherent gums and fibrous matters that
did not pass off in the primary fermentation.
In Ceylon, immediately after the beans have been fermented they
are washed, and the universally high prices obtained by the Ceylon
planters make it desirable to reproduce here a brief résumé of their
method. The fermentation is carried on under sheds, and the beans are
heaped up in beds of 60 cm. to 1 meter in thickness upon a platform of
parallel joists arranged to permit of the escape of the juices. This
platform is elevated from the ground and the whole heap is covered
with sacks or matting. The fermentation takes from five to seven days,
according to the heat of the atmosphere and the size of the heap,
and whenever the temperature rises above 40° the mass is carefully
turned over with wooden shovels.
Immediately after the fermentation is completed the Ceylon planter
passes the mass through repeated washings, and nothing remains but
to dry the seed. This in Ceylon is very extensively done, in dryers
of different kinds, some patterned after the American fruit dryer,
some in slowly rotating cylinders through the axis of which a powerful
blast of hot air is driven.
The process of washing unquestionably diminishes somewhat the weight
of the cured bean; for that reason the practice is not generally
followed in other countries, but in the case of the Ceylon product
it is one of the contributing factors to the high prices obtained.